Bug#761806: liboobs sends invalid messages to system-tools-backends

[Vlad Orlov]

Package: liboobs-1-5
Version: 3.0.0-1
Severity: important

Hi,

I'm running Debian Testing, all packages are up-to-date.


When I run users-admin (from gnome-system-tools package) from the
terminal, it shows the following error:

(users-admin:1146): Liboobs-WARNING **: There was an unknown error 
communicating asynchronously with the backends: Launch helper exited 
with unknown return code 255


If I try to change the full name of my user account, it fails [*]
with an error again:

(users-admin:1146): Liboobs-WARNING **: There was an unknown error 
communicating with the backends: Launch helper exited with unknown 
return code 255


When I look in /var/log/syslog after that, there are some error
messages as well.

1) after users-admin starts:

Sep 16 11:03:16 jessica dbus[388]: [system] Activating service 
name='org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.UsersConfig2' (using 
servicehelper)
Sep 16 11:03:16 jessica dbus[388]: [system] Activating service 
name='org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.GroupsConfig2' (using 
servicehelper)
Sep 16 11:03:16 jessica dbus[388]: [system] Activating service 
name='org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2' (using servicehelper)
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: interface name 
'uint32' is not valid.
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: * Interface names 
are composed of 1 or more elements separated by a
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: period ('.') 
character. All elements must contain at least one character.
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: * Each element 
must only contain the ASCII characters '[A-Z][a-z][0-9]_'
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: and must not begin 
with a digit.
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: * Interface names 
must contain at least one '.' (period) character (and
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: thus at least two 
elements).
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: * Interface names 
must not begin with a '.' (period) character.
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: Compilation failed 
in require at 
/usr/share/system-tools-backends-2.0/scripts/SystemToolsBackends.pl line 51.
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica dbus[388]: [system] Activated service 
'org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2' failed: Launch helper 
exited with unknown return code 255
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends[388]: ** 
(system-tools-backends:1002): WARNING **: Launch helper exited with 
unknown return code 255


2) after I change the full name and press the button to apply the changes:

Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica dbus[388]: [system] Successfully activated 
service 'org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.UsersConfig2'
Sep 16 11:03:17 jessica dbus[388]: [system] Successfully activated 
service 'org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.GroupsConfig2'
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica dbus[388]: [system] Activating service 
name='org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2' (using servicehelper)
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: interface name 
'uint32' is not valid.
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: * Interface names 
are composed of 1 or more elements separated by a
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: period ('.') 
character. All elements must contain at least one character.
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: * Each element 
must only contain the ASCII characters '[A-Z][a-z][0-9]_'
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: and must not begin 
with a digit.
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: * Interface names 
must contain at least one '.' (period) character (and
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: thus at least two 
elements).
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: * Interface names 
must not begin with a '.' (period) character.
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica 
org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2[388]: Compilation failed 
in require at 
/usr/share/system-tools-backends-2.0/scripts/SystemToolsBackends.pl line 51.
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica dbus[388]: [system] Activated service 
'org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends.SelfConfig2' failed: Launch helper 
exited with unknown return code 255
Sep 16 11:03:20 jessica org.freedesktop.SystemToolsBackends[388]: ** 
(system-tools-backends:1002): WARNING **: Launch helper exited with 
unknown return code 255


So it looks like liboobs sends a malformed message (with invalid
interface name) to the backend.



[*] Though the GUI will show that the full name has changed, after
restarting users-admin you'll see that it actually didn't. This is
due to another bug in liboobs, not related to this one.